Angleterre: Delirious/Tim Hugues/Matt Redman

Album: Matt Redman: « Unbroken Praise » (2015):

Unbroken Praise is the twelfth worship album from Matt Redman. Recorded live at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, with an audience of 300 worship leaders, it features tracks co-written with other UK and international songwriters.

Matt Redman is one of the world’s leading worship songwriters, whose songs are sung each week in thousands of churches worldwide. His intimate, accessible and relevant songs have been inspiring praise since he began leading worship at Soul Survivor at the age of 15, under the leadership of Mike Pilavachi.

On Unbroken Praise, as with his previous albums, he has written a collection of songs which communicate God’s timeless truth, and are musically fresh and engaging.

Abbey Road, ‘the most famous recording studio in the world’, has been host to some of music’s biggest names, like Pink Floyd, Ella Fitzgerald and, of course, The Beatles. On Unbroken Praise, Matt Redman and his band have transformed the studios to capture the spirit of a live worship experience.

The cover art echoes the famous Abbey Road sign, and features signatures from everyone who made the album possible: songwriters, musicians, producers, technicians, and many more.

About the album, Matt says, « Unbroken Praise reveals a heart not wanting to be beaten down by the things of life, but to actually increase worship in those moments. »

Matt Redman’s previous album, ‘Your Grace Finds Me’, debuted at number one on the Soundscan Christian Music Chart. He has written some of the world’s most well-known worship songs, like ‘Better Is One Day’, ‘Undignified’, ‘You Never Let Go’ and ‘Bless The Lord (10,000 Reasons)’, which won him two Grammy awards.

Unbroken Praise CD by Matt Redman was published by Integrity in June 2015

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Leadership Conference 2014:

This bank holiday around 6,000 people from over 1,000 churches and organisations from 57 nations gathered together for the annual Leadership Conference hosted by HTB Church in London.

Established to equip leaders for the evangelisation of nations and the transformation of society, the theme of this year’s conference was based around words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John – « I no longer call you servants; I have called you my friends ».

With worship led by Tim Hughes, Matt Redman and Al Gordon at the main session at the Royal Albert Hall, and Ben Cantelon and Luke Hellebronth at the overflow at HTB Brompton Square, Christians of all creeds came together for worship and teaching.

Leader of HTB Nicky Gumbel, renowned for establishing the Alpha course over twenty years ago, was the first to speak at the main session on Monday morning, opening the conference with a talk on the power of friendship.

« Friendship is the key to life and the key to relationship, » he declared. « Love permeates the New Testament, and in some cultures friendship is considered to be the highest form of love…

Gumbel went on to assert that Jesus’s entire ministry was, in fact, built on friendships, and on relationships with people. It’s a model that he says leaders in all settings would do well to follow; in business, as well as the Church.

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Friendship leads to fruitfulness. The most important thing we can do is build friendships, » he said.

Gumbel noted that people in leadership often shy away from building deep friendships for fear that it will affect their capacity to lead others, or to be assertive for fear of causing offence to those close to them. This, however, he argued is an unhealthy way to approach a position of authority.

« Friendship is the best place for confrontation; it’s a safe place to confront. Love confronts; faithful are the words of a friend, » he said.

The crux of the talk was centred on unity, and the vitality of intimate friendship and trust in building relationships within the Church and between denominations. « If we are united then the Church will be united. If we are friends, the Church will be friends, » Gumbel announced.

« People will come to church for many reasons, but they will stay for only one – friendship. People aren’t looking for a friendly church; they’re looking for a church where they can make friends. »

« And if we are serious about the task of reconciliation set before the Church, then friendship has vital part to play in that. « [It is] the key to social action and transformation, any other approach is patronising » he argued, before adding that contrary to reports of the decline of Christianity, « the Church in London has grown by 100,000 in the last seven years » – a statistic that was met with rapturous applause and cheering from the audience.

« I love the Church of England, but I’m more passionate about the Church in England, » Gumbel concluded.

« Through friendship, we could see a united Church in our lifetime. »

This model of diversity and unity is not only spoken out in vision by HTB, but is also worked out in practice. The conference is attended by Christians of all denominations and traditions, and the Bishop of London gave a rousing speech to a packed Royal Albert Hall on Monday evening; highlighting and celebrating the way that those of varying beliefs are able to come together to worship the same God.

Gumbel’s impassioned talk was received well by his captive audience. Mark Melluish, vicar of St Paul’s in Ealing, tweeted « What a lovely opening to #lc14 with @nickygumbel speaking about friendship, Alpha and church planting. #faithbuilding ».

The UK’s Soul Survivor event celebrates two decades of worship with a special ’20th Anniversary Collection’ double-CD album released this week.

The album features 30 tracks including best loved anthems from across the years, ranging from ‘See His Love’ to ‘You’re Beautiful’. Worship leaders featured on the album include Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon, Martyn Layzell and Beth Croft, plus worship bands Delirious and Rend Collective Experiment.

« Over the last 20 years we have been humbled and awed at all that we have seen God do as we have met together at our Soul Survivor events », says Soul Survivor co-founder Mike Pilavach.

« Some of the most special times have been when thousands of us have gathered for worship in our main meetings. We’ve loved having a variety of worship-leading friends join us over the years to help us explore different musical styles, but our worship has never been about the pursuit of musical excellence.

Our longing has always been to touch God’s heart and as we’ve offered him our praise he has taken us on an incredible journey. Our prayer is that this collection of songs helps you to draw close to the Saviour that you might know more of his life-changing presence. »